What's in a Signature? Links, that's what.

The best hiding places are the most obvious ones, right? Or the best weapons? Candlestick on the mantle. I don't have a fireplace, but if I did... We spend so much energy looking for the best places to advertise and socialize, and then we spend some more energy finding out what worked and didn't work for others - what website is the best investment, but what are their demographics, and do you care if you sold or instead got brand awareness.

Enter the email signature. The guaranteed little placement at the bottom of every single email you send out. It's free. It gets delivered. And it goes to people you know and most likely support you, which means they want to know what you're doing. Plus, you form new contacts all the time, so with your email signature, you are passively selling your entrepreneurial self.

Here's mine:
: website : www.katie-james.com
: blog : www.fashionmista.com
: other blog : www.thatitgirl.blogspot.com
: spam prevention blog : www.spammyscammers.blogspot.com
: etsy : www.katiejames.etsy.com
: stylehive : www.stylehive.com/person/fashionmista/grid
: facebook group Global Mistas Inc : http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5791719372
: cell : 555.555.5555

See how easy that was? And you can get creative with the layout, add your logo, etc. etc. But remember, this is not in print! So you can change this every day if you wanted. If you needed votes in a contest, include your pitch: "Vote for me in the Super Great Contest I Entered! It's really easy! Click on this link: www...." I've had website clients see an accessory design contest I'm hoping to score in, and they vote! Did I ask them to? No! It's out of the goodness of their hearts kind of thing. And they liked the idea.

The part where it becomes a chore is when you have a few emails. But really, it's a minor chore. I am email obsessed, so I have three ways of answering email from one email account: my Mac mail on my computer for the pretty "ding", gmail for global access and backup, and my iPhone (also Mac mail). If my signatures are the same, you never know if I'm walking down Broadway, sharing a cafe, or dutifully at my desk.

But don't stop at the email address. Include these links in forums you frequent, if you want your information in a totally public place (unless you're in a private forum). Forum members will click on your links, people coming in from search engines into that forum thread, etc. Warning: I wouldn't do this in blogs. Blogs are generally for Comments only - meaning, your opinion. Not your five zillion things you need to market. Just my opinion, though.

If you do this already, do you have any success stories from it? Has anyone bought one of your products, or become one of your blog junkies? Share with us in the Comments below!

Internet Advertising

You know what I think is very interesting? I've never read about how .coms do their advertising, but I was on Fandango today, and saw that the banner add was targeted to NYC with Mayor Bloomberg advertising for himself. When I searched for movies in 44022, still the same add. Now I went to Netscape to check my stocks (oh, sweet google. Bought it at $97 and now it's $313. But I only have 2 shares) and saw a ny ad for that as well.

These banner ads must be targeted to IP addresses, which is totally cool and smart. Maybe you all know this already. Also, with web advertising, it's brilliant in so many ways, but one ways is that thanks to cookies, companies can get much more accurate numbers for their audiences (city, state, country, unique vs returning visitor, etc.), versus television, where the Nielson audience is 10,000 and the programmers get to speculate based on what those 10,000 viewers are watching. And to watch, they have to click a button to say that they are still there. Television advertising is in the stone age. Poor programers and TV ad execs.

I'm in love with the internet.